Current wireless communication systems, such as digital cellular systems, require extensive digital signal processing to perform channel equalization, channel coding/decoding, and speech coding. One such digital cellular system is the Groupe Special Mobile (GSM) digital cellular system. In a typical GSM digital cellular system configuration, a separate Digital Signal Processor (DSP) is dedicated to a timeslot, thus eight DSPs are required to equalize a single radio frequency (RF) carrier. However, each output from the equalizer must be input into another separate DSP to perform channel decoding. All total, 16 DSPs are necessary to equalize/decode a single RF carrier.
When considering the large number of RF carriers deployed in a cellular system such as GSM, the number of DSPs used within a receiver becomes expensive. In addition to cost, the size of the DSP is such that a large number consumes large portions of valuable real estate within the receiver. Additionally, the large number of DSPs dissipate a corresponding amount of heat that must be removed from the receiver. All said, the large number of DSPs implemented in a receiver as described above is wrought with disadvantages. Thus, a need exists for a way to receive the same number of signals present on a single RF carrier without the need for the large number of dedicated DSPs as in the prior art.